Railway cross-tie.



W. H. ALEXANDER.

RAILWAY GROSS TIE,

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 8, 1914.

Patented Apr, 28, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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RAILWAY GROSS TIE.

APPLICATION FILED mum, 1914.

Patented Ap1128, 1914.

2 SHEETSSHBET 2.

mwymgo 0 u {J g WILLIAM H. ALEXANDER, 0F PITTSBURGH. PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY CROSS-TIE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

Application filed January 8, 1814. Serial No. 811.031.

To all Ic/w/n'it may Ounce/72.

Be it known that l. 'ILLIAM H. ALEX- axm-zn. a citizen of the li'nitedStates, re-l siding at Pittsburgh. in the county of Alle- This inventionrelates to railway crossties. and has for its object, among others, toprovide a one-piece tie which'may be attached to the rails without theuse of spikes, bolts or other separate t'astenings. knother object toprovide a tie which strong and durable and yet possesses the resiliencynecessary to withstand the poundin; of heavy rolling-stock and "preventinjury to the mechanism of locomotives, etc. Thetie contemplated is madeof sheet-metal and is designed to be pressed into the desired shape witha concave under surface which forms an air cushion between it and theroadbed. whereby the resiliency or adaptability of the tie to recoilunder the pound-' ing of heavy traffic is increased. Being made ofsheet-metal. preferably steel, the tie will not require near as muchballast as the old wooden tie or the more recent I-beam metal tie. forthe reason that the present tie will lie upon the top of theballastwhereas when the prior forms mentioned are used the ballast mustbe laid eight or ten inches deeper or thicker in order to fill up aroundthe sides and ends of the ties, even when. the thickness of the ballastbelow the ties is the same as under my present form of tie.

further object or the invention is to provide a tie which although itrequires no separate fastening 's to secure it to the rails.

yet may be connected or fastened thereto and a so detached ordisconnected therefrom without separating. the rails at their joints.Thus. if a tie should become corroded or accidentally broken, it may bereadilyremoved for recoating with a preservative preparation andreturned to its place in the track or a new tie substituted withoutmaterially disturbing the track or unfastening the joints of the rails.Woreover, the construction of the tie of one piece of metal, in-(:ltltlinfl' the rail-fastening means, will greatly reduce the danger ofaccidents due to spreading rails or the decay of wooden ties. It is amatter of serious concern that the railway tracks in this and othercountries have not been strengthened anywhere near in proportion to theincrease in Weight of the locomotives and rolling-stock put into use inrecent years. The'use of the ordinary wooden ties which years ago werecapable to a certain degree of withstanding the light tratiic of thatday, is obviously inadequate for the immense locomotives and heavy steelcars used today, and the percentage of accidents will continue toincrease as long as the wooden tie is used and the size and weight ofthe locomotives and rolling-stock is increased. The tendency of therails being spread in ordinary trafiic today, espe; cially on sharpcurves, will be immediately apparent- When one considers the terrible impact and strain upon the spikes of the out side rails on such curveswhen said rails are, struck by rapidly moving heavy engines and heavilyloaded cars. This terrible impact due to the weight and momentum of thetrains as their course is changed by the curve in the track, will pressthe outside spikes a little bit at a time from the rails, until the gageis partially destroyed, so that each heavily loaded train that passesWidens it, until finally the wheels drop in and there is a fearfulwreck. An important object of this invention is to prevent thisspreading of the rails and consequently reduce the number of wrecks onrailways.

My invention also has as one of its objects to lessen the cost ofconstruction and maintenance of a track. While the metal ties made inaccordance with the present inVl1 tion may cost more than wooden ties,when the extra expenses incident to the use of the wooden tie,including. spikes, chairs, tieplates, ballast and cost of labor inadjusting said separate devices and extra thickness of ballast, areconsidered, and also the much greater durability of the metal tie overthe wooden one, it will be seen that the metal tie is much cheaper inthe long run, as well as a real necessity in order to prevent accidents.

The invention will be hereinafter described in connection with theaccompanyinn drawings. which constitute a part of this specification,and then more specifically defined in the claims at the end of thedescription.

in the accompanying drawings. wherein no called key-ties. Fig. 5 is atransverse hallast of the track being indicated in dotted lines. hi 6 isa perspectire view of one end of one of the gage-ties. '7 is a similarview of one end of one of the key tifes. Fig. 8 is a sectional Viewtaken transversely of the rail and longitudinally ot the tie, shorvi onan en larged scale how a separaoic clai may he applied to the tie,although it she-aid he distinctly understood that such separablefastening is not necessary and need only he used in case of accidentalinjury to the tie and "the rail must he temporarily sect; such injuredtie until it can be rnerv one substituted. l VlEW showing the same apseparahle clamp, and. a so, the of a snail l side of the rail,

ties and lrcy ties plan "View oil n how the sea gerails Withoutseparating 'jfllll'ils,

its alre dy intimated, ti f emplates the use of one losing exactly l'and shape and difier other simply in the locatio ctal irei d downrvarclyturner l 7 respectively,

section 01 a tie drawn to larger scale, the

tongues not to make them too wide and thereby Weaken the tie, hut at thesame time they are made amply Wide to give them the necessary strength,the Width of the top of the tie being considered. it will also he notedthat in forming these tongues the taco thereof which is presented to andabuts against the edge of the base 01": the rail is straight, as seenclearly in Figs. 3 and 8, and indicated by the reference character a.This straight hearing face gives a very firm hold upon the rail andcauses the tie to snap into place when adjusted. The hearing faces a ofthe two tongues or lugs on the gage-tie are spaced the proper distanceapart to give the rails the desired gage when engaged by or fitted belowsaid tongues. it points opposite said hearing faces and spaced therefroma distance equal to the width of the base of the rail, there are formedshoulders a designed to abut against the inner sides of said rail-bases.'lthese shoulders are formed by pressing up per tions of the top of thetie, as best shown in ii Q1. and 5, The shoulders are ight on. theirfaces which abut against the inner edges of the eases oi the rail in mi.hohl firmly and the desired snap in place. The other faces and top of Vraised portion or shoulder as at so that the base of the easily orer thesame preparatory t s apping into place between the llat or sir i and aand below the tongues .lhe hey-ties are similarly for with outwardlyextending tongues or lugs Z) hav 1 straight races (3 abutting a inst thes of the has-es oi the rails on are inside and filtii rzised lt illflGiSZ lnwing rounded b for the same purp' as descrihed in conn ction withthe e res l) tend n the corre. lers i) lace the oppothe bases id m thees of the upon c then f so that rails are said key-ties taking over theinner sides of the bases of the rails and forcing the said rails toproper gage as determinedby the spacing of the tongues on the gage-ties.In thus applying the key-ties, .it will be observed that the bases ofthe rails ride easily over the rounded faces of the raised shoulders andsnap into place with the bearing faces of said shoulders abuttingagainst'the outer edges of the bases of the rails. After the ties areattached to the rails, the track is lowered onto the ballast by removingthe blocks D, and the first train passing over the line will force theflanges of the ties down into the ballast E as indicated in Fig. 5. Theembedding of these flanges in the ballast prevents either lateral orendwise movementor shifting of the ties and also causes an air cushionto be formed below each tie which cushion adds to the elasticity of theroadbed as hereinbefore explained.

When it is desired to remove one of the gage-ties from a laid track, itis only necessary to take outtwo or three of the key-ties, which canreadily be done by turning them to an inclined position, slide thegage-ties alon of the rails sufliciently long to permit of springin saidrails inward slightly, which may be done by use of the tool illustratedI in Fig. 11, whereupon the gage-tie sought to be removed will drop offof the rails. The tool I have shown for this purpose consists of twohook-shaped plates 18 adapted to engage the outer sides of the bases ofthe rails,

two rods 19 connected to said plates 18 and extending inwardly towardeach other, the inner end portions of said rods being screw threaded,and a turn-buckle 20 engaging the inner ends of said rods. It is obviousthat by turnin the turn-buckle in one direction, the hook-s aped plates18 and rails engaged thereby will be drawn inward as desired.

In some instances, as on sharp curves, it may be preferred to lay thekey-ties in alternate pairs, as illustrated in Fig. 10, but as a rulesaid ties are laid singly in alternation as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Perforations or holes'15 may be formed in the ties, as illustrated inFigs. 8 and 9, to provide for attaching separable clamps 16 whennecessary or desirable, as in case of accident occasioned by a brokenaxle and resulting in an unavoidablefracture, such clamps being securedby bolts 17 passed through the holes 15, but the provision for theseseparable fastenings is not essential to the present invention. aspreviously stated, and this should not be taken in any sense to modifythe statement that I have provided a one-piece tie capable ofattachmentto the rails of a. track without any separable fasteningmeans.

It will be observed that my tie is very simple in construction and isadapted to be the rails far enough to leave a section sirable.

gage-ties and stamped out of a sheet metal at a single operation, sothat it can be manufactured ata very low cost and great saving of timeas compared with the majority of metal ties heretofore known.

The lrinimum weight of my tie, considered with its strength and shape,as well as its integral rail-fastening devices capable of holding bothrails of a track, at once appeal to railroad engineers.

Ha vingthus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A one-piecesheet-metal tie having a tongue forholding one side of the base of arail, and a shoulder pressed up from the top of the tie and arrangeddirectly opposite the tongue for engaging the edge of the other side ofthe base of the rail, sald shoulder having a straight face presented tothe edge of the base of the rail and its upper surface rounded laterallyfor guiding the rail-base into position substantially as described.

2. A one-piece tie having rail-holding tongues to overlap one-edge ofeach of the two rails of a track, said tie, also having means arrangedat the sides of said tongues for attaching a separate clamp for holdingthe rail to the tie when necessary or de- 3. A. one-piece tie havingrail-holding tongues tooverlap one edge of each of the two rails of atrack, and shoulders to abut against the opposite edges of the railsfrom those which are overlapped by said tongues, said tie also havingmeans arranged at the sides of said shoulders for attaching a separateclamp for holding the rail to the tie when necessary or desirable.

l. A one-piece tie having rail-holding tongues to overlap one edge ofeach of the two rails of a track, and shoulders to abut against theopposite edges of the rails from those which are overlapped by saidtongues, said tie also having means arranged at the sides of saidtongues and shoulders for attaching separate clam s for holding the railto the tie at either or 0th sides of said rail when necessary ordesirable.

5. The combination with one-piece sheetmetal gage-ties, each having asubstantially flat top and downwardly turned side and end flanges toengage the ballast of a roadbed, the top of each of said gage-tieshaving inwardly extending tongues for overlapping and holding the outeredges of the bases of the two rails of a track to proper gage, ofkey-ties, each made of one piece of sheet-metal shaped like thegage-ties, the top of each key-tie having outwardly extending tonguesfor overlapping and holding the inner edges of the bases of the railsnoeegree engagement with the tongues of the gageties loot-h kinols ofties halving raised shoul" ders facing their respective tongues anddesigned to engage the eclges of the opposite sides of the bases of therails from those overlapped by the adjacent tongues.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specifieeti'on thepresence of two attesting Witnesses.

WILLIAM, ll. ALEXANDER.

Witnesses:

E. YVILLIAMS A, M. PARKINS.

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